Cairns, Queensland

Arrived in Cairns after a 2 hour flight from Bali to Darwin and then a 6 hour wait for my flight to Cairns. Which was definately not very pleasant. It's incredibly hard to sleep on an airport floor with all you have to live with and off of for 6 months! When I arrived it was nice and hot, got a transfer to my accommodation and settled in quite nicely. Stayed at Bohemia Resort which was huge and had a really nice swimming pool and bar area. My first day in Cairns was a miserable one! I was having a bad day for some reason and got into my head that Australia was crap, especially Cairns was crap and most of all Australia was crap. In my dorm were two Irish people who soon cheered my up, I went and had dinner with them and their friends in a pub called the 'Woolshed' which has a "cheap" menu for backpackers and had a really nice evening.

Spent a few days lounging by the pool and the Lagoon (a public pool by the beach as you aren't allowed into the sea because of box-jellies and stingrays) just meeting people and having a laugh. Wednesday went on a sailing and snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef with a company called Ocean Freedom. I had a brilliant day. The group was small and of all ages, the crew were really cool too. We had a captain who looked like Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp combined, so I nicknamed him Captain Jack Sparrow, obviously, not a bad mix either - the outcome was pretty cute.

Anyway, the day was spent with a couple of lads from Ireland, a girl from Wales and a girl from San Fran and we all met up later on that evening for a good old shindig. Had a really fun night with them all, especially the girl from Cali, she was only 19 and had therefor never ordered herself a drink over the bar. I found her really amusing because she kept saying that everything was "Tight, man" I guess that's Cali lingo. She said that I could stay with her at her uni house when I get to San Fran so that's a good contact to have.

I left Cairns on Friday 28th and left for Mission Beach, talking myself into doing a sky-dive there. On the way the Oz experience stopped at a Croc Farm where we watched feeding time and fed some Kangaroos. Did you know.... the name Kangaroo in means 'I don't know' in Aboriginal language. There, don't say I never teach you anything. Before actually entering the farm the b*%$ard guide decided he would surprise me from behind with a Rainbow Python around my neck, which I was slightly dipleased with to say the least! The guide wouldn't move it so I had to get used to it and after the initial shock, I was fine. But then it's head made it's way up to my face and I could feel it getting tighter around my neck at which point I panicked and started swearing at the guide to get it off of me! Instead of doing what I asked (ok, demanded) he placed a baby croc on my head and waited for someone to take a picture before removing them both. Git.